[BLKNSLVR]

It was a stupid throw away comment about how expensive power could become in the near future, such that popping corn becomes a 'lifestyle choice'.

Having said that, throughout the years I have made the odd comment about how fragile the grid is, and how fragile society is in its dependence upon the grid. My favourite way to demonstrate the fragility of the grid is referencing CyberSquirrel1: https://www.cybersquirrel1.com/

If small furry animals can accidentally take down segments of the grid for hours at a time, the scope for intentional (human) sabotage must be pretty darn broad. I feel like I don't want to call much attention to it because it feels like it would be both easy and effective at the same time as requiring essentially no direct violence against another human (it's just a direct violence against a community, but that's a more vague concept).

My favourite example from cybersquirrel1 was an eagle that dropped a sheep skull on <some critical part> of an electrical substation that shorted out a whole regional area for a time.

[eth0up]

A friendly reply, and surprise which I rarely see here.

Despite my misinterpretation of your original comment, somehow I managed to be wrong but still right, and indeed you admit to having considered similar grid vulnerabilities.

I can imagine someone having a sip of radiofeisty tea on the Euphrates, musing that in the end, it was no bearded hero, no throbbing missile, no ornery atom, but a perfectly normal pigeon, or more poetically/biblically, the vacant head of a lamb that took down the great superpower.

On a sober note, we may soon be facing such strange times where popping corn by campfire is the more economically prudent culinary method, where not prohibited (Oregon?). Or maybe just grope in the eternal darkness for a slingshot and hurl a copper wire through the blinding electropustule of whatever inevitable datacenter happens to be humming nearby.